TSG conducted our annual client briefing on Monday June 5th. One of the more interesting presentations and discussions was on how clients are finding innovative ways to leverage the capabilities of the various object storage devices and technologies. This post will present some of our experiences and best practices in regards to object storage and […]
DynamoDB 11 Billion Benchmark – Repository Walk-through
TSG started a 11 Billion Document Benchmark with DynamoDB last Friday to test and verify the power of Amazon Web Services as well as the TSG ECM products on an unprecedented scale. As of this morning we have migrated approximately 7 billion documents. This post will dive into the repository itself and show the functionality […]
Alfresco Versioning – How to make it better with the TSG Chain Version Module
For those that have read the Alfresco and Documentum comparison whitepaper, Alfresco has significant benefits when compared to Documentum for the majority of ECM capabilities. One of the few capabilities where Alfresco is not as strong as Documentum is document versioning and lifecycle as we described on a blog post about the versioning differences. For […]
Documentum – Should I stay or should I go? Thoughts on the OpenText Purchase Six Months Later
TSG talked with a 20+ year Documentum client yesterday about the future of Documentum. Like many Documentum customers, the client had postponed any decision about future plans for their system until there was a clear understanding of what OpenText would do with Documentum. With OpenText Enterprise World complete, this post will present our TSG thoughts […]
Federated Search and Content Services – Is a Publishing Approach better?
Over the last couple of years, some ECM vendors have been touting a Federated Search model to “cure” the issue of access to document content contained in legacy ECM systems. Whether from an ECM vendor like Nuxeo or supporting software vendor like Simflofy, the marketing message of getting access to multiple repositories from one search hearkens […]
FileNet Support to End in 2019
IBM has formally announced that it is dropping support for FileNet version 5.2.X on April 30th, 2019. FileNet customers on 5.2.X need to decide whether to upgrade to the 5.5 version, run unsupported, or migrate to another option. This post will present our thoughts from talking with a FileNet customer working through the decision process.
Amazon Textract for Full Text Search
TSG had added Amazon Textract to our ECM offerings for Alfresco, Documentum, Hadoop and DynamoDB as well as our search offerings with Solr and Elastic Search. Previously, we looked at Textract’s text extraction capabilities. For this post, we will discuss and demonstrate how Amazon Textract can be leveraged as a modern OCR indexing engine for […]
Documentum – Momentum EMC World 2015 – Life Sciences Solution Strategy and Roadmap
Presented by Jennifer Wemstorm – Senior Director, Product Management and Jessica Kelley, Quality Product Management. Attendance was only about 40 but could be because of the 8:30 start time. This post will present our thoughts on the Roadmap.
Veeva Vault – How to Integrate with Other Applications
In some previous posts we discussed our addition of the Veeva Source and Target to our OpenMigrate platform. As we were becoming familiar with the Veeva API for the purposes of migration, we started to think what else could be integrated with a Veeva implementation. It is rare that an ECM system is completely standing […]
Hadoop PDF Annotations with OpenAnnotate
The Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) provides the ability to store an enormous quantity of files with redundancy. In our first release of OpenContent for Hadoop, we have included the ability to annotate PDF documents with OpenAnnotate and store and retrieve the PDF layers in Hadoop. This post will describe the integration with Hadoop as […]
DynamoDB 11 Billion Benchmark Ingestion Success!!! – Lessons Learned
TSG started an 11 Billion Document Benchmark with DynamoDB last Friday to test and verify the power of Amazon Web Services as well as the TSG ECM products on an unprecedented scale. As of this morning, we are pleased to announce we have fully ingested our goal of 11 billion documents!!! This post will share […]
Documentum – EMC World 2015 – What’s New, What’s Next: Documentum Platform Roadmap – Patrick Walsh
One of the most heavily attended sessions is always the roadmap presentations. It is a packed room (could have used a bigger room – probably 120 folks with 30 standing) right after lunch and before Rohit’s keynote. This post will present our quick review of the roadmap with some thoughts on how it compares to […]
TSG "Hack" Day – June 29th – 2011
On Wednesday, June 29th, TSG held its first ever Hack Day! The idea of a Hack Day originated at Yahoo! (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_Day), and similar ideas arose at companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter. This post will detail our experience.
EMC World 2015 – Monday Morning – What’s new and next with xCP #MMTM15
The first session was very well attended (standing room only – about 90 people), presented by Nick King – xCP Product Manager. While the fact that there were few great alternative sessions may have been a factor, to fill the room early in Vegas is fairly impressive. This post will present impressions and thoughts on Documentum xCP.
Documentum Upgrade – Understanding Impact of WDK Development
It has been TSG’s experience that the biggest effort in most Documentum upgrades is the compatibility of customizations made to Documentum interfaces (Webtop mostly). While many of our clients choose to develop custom interfaces that migrate easily leveraging HPI or OpenContent, this blog post will only address Webtop customizations. As detailed in our Planning Guide […]
OpenText & Documentum Consulting
OpenText & Documentum Products and Consulting Services TSG has been working with Documentum software has since its infancy in the 1990’s. How many people remember EDMS 98, Accelera, or the first wind-blown Momentum in Miami in 1996? We were there! As Documentum, now part of OpenText, has aged, customers want improved capabilities that are just […]
Documentum Object Model and the Alfresco Content Model
The Documentum object model and the Alfresco content model have many similarities. Both software packages have the concept of library services (check in / check out), a data dictionary, and a hierarchical data model however implementations do differ. In Documentum, administrators can create or alter custom object types with the use of Documentum Administrator, Composer, […]
Documentum Health Check
For many clients, one of our first projects is a Documentum Health Check. This is typically a 2-3 day project where one of our technical architects will visit onsite to review all the different components of the Documentum environment. We encourage this type of project as it allows us to be more pro-active with identifying […]
Documentum Webtop – Stabilizing or Not Investing?
With EMC World next week, I had an interesting discussion with a client regarding the future of Webtop with Documentum. As readers will know from last year’s EMC World post, Documentum announced last year that they would not be “investing in Webtop” in the future. For this post, I thought I would share some of […]
Documentum Scanning – Trying TWAIN and other approaches
As we have talked about in other posts, sometimes Documentum users can get stuck in a word association game in regards to adding capabilities to Documentum. Going off the Documentum product pricing sheet revels some common responses: Workflow -> BPM Migration -> Buldoser PDF Overlays -> PDF Aqua or new PDF Stamping Services Annotation -> […]
Migrating from Documentum to Alfresco– Client Interview
For this post, we will be talking with the Project Manager from a customer that recently moved from Documentum to Alfresco. In order to avoid having to get corporate approval, the client has asked not be identified for this post. The interview was conducted for a half hour on September 30, 2011.
Oracle Aggressively Targeting Documentum Customers
Recently Oracle has been targeting Documentum customers with an aggressive campaign entitled “Stop Maintaining Documentum and Start Innovating with Oracle WebCenter.” This post will discuss TSG’s thoughts on the campaign after viewing the Oracle Webinar.
Documentum D2 and EMC Professional Services
One question we have been getting from clients has been a perceived tie between the evaluation/purchase of D2 and EMC Professional services. This post will share some client feedback as well give our thoughts based on our own evaluation of D2.
Migrating from Documentum to Alfresco – Cost Differences
Back in 2010, we posted an article on the pricing differences between Documentum and Alfresco. With our series this year, this post will update our thoughts.
Documentum – Upgrading to Documentum 7 in Three Weeks
Many of our clients have end of year deadlines for projects. One of our newest clients contacted us with an unprecedented challenge – could we upgrade them from 32-bit Documentum 6.5 SP1 to 64-bit Documentum 7.0 Patch 12 by early December given availability of certain funds. This post will present the project and some best […]
Documentum – EMC World 2014 – Momentum – Early Predictions
This week, May 5th through May 8th, EMC World and the smaller component for Documentum/IIG (Momentum) will again be in Las Vegas again at the Venetian. TSG has attended all the U.S. Momentum’s since the 1996 inaugural event in Miami (18 and counting). One of our more popular series are our thoughts in attending the […]
Technology Services Group named Alfresco 2014 Americas Partner of the Year
Chicago, IL. – June 3, 2014 Technology Services Group, Inc. the leading provider of open Enterprise Content Management solutions for the Fortune 1000, announced today their recognition as Alfresco’s 2014 Americas Partner of the Year. Since partnering with Alfresco in 2006, TSG has successfully migrated a wide range of customers in a variety of industries […]
Alfresco Summit 2014 Recap
This year, for the first time, TSG had a booth at both the San Francisco and London Alfresco Summit events as the 2014 Americas Partner of the Year. The major announcements included the release of Alfresco 5.0 and the standalone Activiti Designer. We will be reviewing the product updates in an upcoming Alfresco user group meetup […]
Documentum Upgrade Alternatives
I was talking to a client yesterday struggling with decisions on upgrading Documentum. Currently the client is on Documentum 5.3 SP5 and is paying EMC for additional support since 5.3 SP5 is no longer supported under standard support. This is not an uncommon situation with many Documentum clients for some of the following reasons: Over […]
Documentum purchased by OpenText – 4 ways to reduce the risk of an unknown OpenText future
Announced on September 12th, OpenText is purchasing the assets of the Enterprise Content Division of EMC (that includes Documentum among other products). For more thoughts, see our Detailed Analysis and Predictions. While predictions around the web vary on the future of the combined offerings, one common, very valid concern based on OpenText’s history, is: what […]
Documentum bought by OpenText – what do OpenText customers think?
While most of the focus in regards to the announcement this month of the purchase of Documentum by OpenText has been on what will happen to the Documentum customers, we got some insight from this week’s ARMA conference in regards to OpenText client thoughts. This post will share our thoughts as well as present some […]
Documentum sold by EMC to OpenText
September 12th, 2016 – OpenText Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Division, including Documentum. This post will provide our thoughts on the upcoming purchase.
Third Annual TSG Client Briefing – June 3rd – 2010
TSG will be holding our third annual client briefing on June 3, at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center from 9 to 4:30. The briefing focuses on TSG facilitation of specific ECM topics with a focus on interaction between clients for experience, lessons learned and best practices. Last year’s briefing included: Introductions – sharing “What […]
Documentum Upgrade – Understanding all the Pieces
As mentioned in previous posts, many clients are struggling with the upgrade to Documentum 6.5. Typically, the upgrade of the Documentum components are only one piece of what can be a difficult puzzle. Upgrading servers, operating systems, databases, and document manipulation services all add a level of complexity and coordination. This post will highlight typical […]
Documentum – What’s Next Updated for 2010
Back in 2007, we started offering a presentation for clients, “What’s Next for Documentum?” The presentation focused on what mature Documentum clients are doing “next”. Typically, mature customers: have an existing production install of Documentum have implemented tools “out of the box” with some or extensive customizations have had some success ….and are looking for […]
ECM Implementations – Why do some fail?
Recently we have been in touch with three large clients that are engaging with TSG after having failed with implementations of either a new ECM vendor or new product from their existing ECM vendor. While we are often brought in to clean up ECM implementations, we don’t often see projects where vendors and their tools […]
SharePoint – Adding ECM Structure
While majority of the work we do is Documentum or Alfresco related, we recently had the opportunity to help a client re-structure their SharePoint implementation. They are a small company that adopted SharePoint several years ago, however, they were unhappy with how the system was being used (or in essence not being used). Each user […]
OpenMigrate: Bulk Load Interface Available for Download
The OpenMigrate Bulk Load Interface provides a highly configurable user interface which enables the user to easily manage documents and import them into a variety of targets.
Documentum after the EMC fire sale – it’s all about the brand
With the recent announcement by Bloomberg about EMC shopping Documentum as well as EMC World/Momentum just two weeks away, many clients have been asking us about our thoughts on the impending sale of Documentum. Unlike the original purchase of Documentum by EMC in 2003, this sale is more of a fire sale as Dell/EMC are […]
Alfresco 5.1 Released: First Look
Alfresco 5.1 was released yesterday. As a premier partner, TSG received an early release to prepare our clients as well as certify our solutions. This post will share our quick thoughts on the new platform, changes in the new version, and our thoughts on how we are planning to take advantage of some of the new […]
The Future of ECM
TSG is hosting a breakfast meeting with Doculabs on October 15th in Rosemont, IL on the Future of Enterprise Content Management (ECM). If you are interested in attending, please send us a note at inquiry@tsgrp.com. This post will summarize the 20 minute TED format talk I am giving to kick-off the meeting.
Documentum D2 – Thoughts on the Content Library Use Case
We recently helped a client with a difficult implementation surrounding the “Content Library” function released back in April with D2 as a primary client. The use case is focused on managing project deliverables for large-scale multi-year projects. This post will describe some of the client’s struggles and our overall thoughts.
Hadoop well documented – Adding ECM attributes "on the fly"
Hadoop, a leading technology disruptor from the Big Data movement, is a massively scalable architecture capable of dealing with terabytes+ of unstructured data. As the cost of storage, memory and CPU continues to move toward almost free, we are seeing the clients looking to move away from traditional legacy ECM tools for the newer architecture and cost savings […]
Documentum – EMC World 2015 – Momentum – Prepping for the Show
Next week, May 4th through May 8th, EMC World and the smaller component for Documentum (formerly IIG and now ECD ) Momentum will again be in Las Vegas again at the Venetian. TSG has attended all the U.S. Momentum’s since the 1996 inaugural event in Miami (19 and counting). For those attending, we thought we […]
Alfresco 5 – TSG Products and Solutions Now Available
Since the release of Alfresco 5.0, TSG has been working to validate our products and solutions on the latest 5.x version (as of this post, Alfresco Enterprise 5.0.0.5). We are proud to announce our product offerings that are now Alfresco 5 compatible. Continue reading for the details.
Save Your Sinking Legacy ECM Implementation
Is FUD keeping you locked into a bad ECM Implementation? Fear, uncertainty, and doubt can keep anyone from improving the status quo of a poor, but working, enterprise content management (ECM) system. In addition, a lack of system sponsorship can fail to crystallize the vision for the organization. The business is then stuck with a […]
Redacting Roadmap – User Scenarios
As part of the TSG Product Roadmap and based on clients requests, we are currently in the midst of adding additional redaction capabilities across our product set. This post will discuss the different user redaction scenarios and how our products (OpenAnnotate, OpenMigrate and the OpenContent Search and Case) are being updated to satisfy these requests. These […]
Building a Services Layer for Alfresco – When CMIS is Not Enough
We’ve had a number of clients, especially those migrating from a legacy ECM platform, ask us about how to go about building a services layer for Alfresco. Typically these clients have existing applications that use either a legacy API or proprietary services layer for the old platform. One question that comes up is: “should we […]
Alfresco Guest Blog – How to retire FileNet quickly and avoid those large support payments.
TSG was a guest contributor to the Alfresco blog site this week.
Hadoop – OpenContent/HPI Product Plans
The first step in supporting all of the TSG products on Hadoop is building our OpenContent REST Web Services layer to access Hadoop in the same manner we access Documentum, Alfresco and other content management systems. This post will present our plans and timelines for OpenContent along with associated TSG solutions.